Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 144: Desperation

Time reversed to the morning of that day.

In an underground location, Zhong Chengshuo held onto the front of the human guard’s clothing tightly.

The zombie guard lay on the side, watching helplessly. Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t use magic, but he was skilled at tearing off the corpse talisman with his nails, just like King Yama, the King of Hell.

With its movement and vocal nodes destroyed, the zombie guard turned into a crude humanoid canvas, lying on the wall corner, at Zhong Chengshuo’s mercy.

The human guard, who was caught by the collar, was anxious. Zhong Chengshuo didn’t care about his thoughts. He tightened his fingers, and asked again, “Where are the personal items of the corpses stored?”

Dead people always hated having their things taken away, and this was a universal truth.

The human guard closed his mouth, having given up on running away. He would occasionally glance at the door, hoping someone would notice the broken light—

This thing, which he didn’t know what it was, only used physical attacks and Sunken Society certainly had the numbers to overwhelm it!

But the hands of this thing were so cold, it made him uneasy.

After asking his question, Zhong Chengshuo froze in place like a statue, silently waiting for thirty seconds. Just as the thirty-second mark passed, he extended his other hand and began to remove the human guard’s uniform.

The human guard instinctively protected his chest and exclaimed, “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“Otherwise, it will be stained with blood later,” Zhong Chengshuo replied calmly, slowly unbuttoning the uniform as if he were skinning an animal.

The human guard: “……”

The human guard: “Your personal belongings will be classified and stored in the relic warehouse for seven days and nights. After confirming that there are no problems, they will be packaged and sent to the research department outside for identification. Do you need me to guide you to the relic warehouse?”

He didn’t even dare to take a breath halfway through, and by the end of his sentence, he barely had a whistle in his voice.

Zhong Chengshuo stopped unbuttoning the uniform.

“Okay.”

He stared at the human guard with Minister Zou’s dull eyes.

“Then give me the personal belongings of this person first.”

The human guard tremblingly took out Minister Zou’s phone and then nervously handed over his own phone. Zhong Chengshuo put both phones in his pocket and lifted the zombie guard with one hand, placing it back at the entrance to the underground corpse vault while it was still dark.

The zombie guard let out a sigh of relief. It dutifully stood in place, decorating the area with the original “peace” that was there before. Before the corpse talisman was repaired, it couldn’t speak or move, which meant it would be mostly his unlucky colleague who would be held accountable.

It looked at Zhong Chengshuo and the human guard walking away with an almost sympathetic look.

Hopefully, this guy was just a lonely ghost who wanted to retrieve his private belongings, or else this matter wouldn’t end well.

The pale lamps gradually retreated. Zhong Chengshuo and the guard walked shoulder-to-shoulder through the dim corridor that was similar to a tomb due to the low ceilings towards the underground corpse vault exit. The nearby corridors were complicated like a spider’s web, and the guard deliberately chose the “proper” main roads.

Zhong Chengshuo could see the desire in his eyes. The guard most likely wanted to trigger an alarm to notify Sunken Society, so he followed quietly, noting all the scenes along the way. Whenever this guard wanted to walk the same path again, he would stop quietly and stare at the uniform buttons of the guards without expression, causing the guard to almost stumble over his own feet.

Click clack.

The sound of two pairs of footsteps, one light and one heavy, echoed in the corridor. Zhong Chengshuo kept puffing his chest, but he didn’t really breathe. In contrast, the guard’s breathing became increasingly heavy and rapid.

“How much further is it to the relic warehouse?” Zhong Chengshuo asked as if chatting.

“We have to change zones,” the guard said hoarsely. “This area only stores individual bodies and specimens. I’m not lying to you…”

“I know, some practitioners’ personal belongings may react with their bodies and cause problems,” Zhong Chengshuo continued to answer with a leaky throat yet his tone was calm enough to make one’s hair stand on end. “But considering convenience, the warehouse and the morgue can’t be too far apart. At least not more than thirty minutes of a straight-line distance.”

The guard hung his head and dared not say a word.

This evil thing that came out was not only strong but also very difficult to fool.

It had decisively killed Minister Zou and disabled the zombie guard. The guard thought it would create a commotion at the entrance of the underground corpse vault, relying on its strength, but who knew this evil thing was exceptionally calm and completely untrickable…

Making a big fuss was certainly cool, but Sunken Society could easily block it using crowd tactics.

This guy not only wanted to retrieve his own belongings but also wanted to escape.

The guard’s plan to escape in the chaos was ruined, and he didn’t dare to intentionally provoke this evil thing. At this point, he could only hope that the people of Sunken Society would discover that something was wrong on their own.

Perhaps some strange god heard the guard’s thoughts, as the next moment, Minister Zou’s phone rang.

Zhong Chengshuo slowly took it out and was relieved to find the face recognition unlock option.

He declined the call directly and quickly replied with one hand.

It was an internal communication group called “Technical Department Two~Five”.

[Technical Department Two—Zou: I’m caught up with something. It’s not convenient to talk.]

[Technical Department Two—Han: The boss is coming for a meeting this morning. Hurry up. It’s important.]

[Technical Department Two—Zou: Okay.]

‘Time’s running out,’ Zhong Chengshuo thought.

According to the guard, after the items here were confirmed to be okay, they would be “transported out”.

He had been here for less than seven days, so the hamster phone charm must still be here. But the fact that they had to pack and transport it was enough to make him smell that something was off.

Sunken Society could easily take defensive and protective measures and build a separate laboratory near the corpse vault. Insisting on building the laboratory outside could only mean that there was something fishy about this place.

In other words, it was hard to escape from here.

He couldn’t go to the so-called boss meeting. At most, his colleagues would notice something was wrong with Mr. Zou after half a day.

Zhong Chengshuo’s footsteps became heavier, causing the guard to jump in place. He led Zhong Chengshuo up and down, turning probably eighteen corners, until they finally arrived at a new area.

Compared to the dim and gloomy corpse vault, the walls here were painted  light green, giving it a somewhat hospital-like feeling, and there were fewer messy fork roads.

There was a fenced wall with an open gate between the two areas, and a detector beside the gate flickered with a bright green light.

Zhong Chengshuo stopped cautiously.

“This is the storage area, and we guards have permission to be here.” Seeing Zhong Chengshuo’s gaze, the guard quickly explained his necessity, “The relic warehouse is as big as a maze, and it’s hidden deep. It’s hard for you to find it alone.”

Zhong Chengshuo supported Minister Zou’s heavy head and said, “Let’s go.”

Just as the two of them passed through the narrow gate of the fence and stepped into the storage area, the bright green lights in the corners they couldn’t see suddenly went out.

This scene was being projected in real-time on a display screen in another underground building. Perhaps due to poor signal, the image flickered and blurred.

Wei Huaqian sat at the end of a long table with three other people sitting sparsely around it.

One of them was thin and sweating, wiping his face with a tissue over and over again.

“Minister Han, is this what you called ‘no problem’?” A woman with round and gentle features spoke. Her voice was strangely mixed with coquettishness and contempt. “The meeting is about to start, and he followed a guard to the storage area?”

“He said he…was caught up in something. Maybe he’s just looking for something.” Minister Han was like a fish out of water. His mouth opened and closed, unable to suppress the guilt in his voice.

“Come on, isn’t he still walking? Is the situation that urgent that he’s using Sunken Society’s property for private use?” The woman sneered.

“Boss Qu is so sharp. You’re able to guess there might be something wrong right away.” The only old man at the table didn’t forget to flatter.

Wei Huaqian didn’t even look at the old man. His eyes were fixed on the bloated figure on the screen.

The other three ministers didn’t know that Minister Zou had begged and pleaded to get into this meeting. The mistake during the Gengsheng Town incident was too big, and before they could fix it, Mr. Qiu caused a disturbance that disrupted Shian, indirectly dragging Sunken Society into trouble.

At this critical juncture, Minister Zou planned to use Zhong Chengshuo’s corpse to make a comeback and present an important plan—there was no time to waste, so they were counting on him.

The meeting had just started for half a minute when Wei Huaqian immediately ordered surveillance near the corpse vault to be accessed.

“Evil things don’t just appear out of thin air. Perhaps the employees under Lao Zou’s command made an operational mistake.” The middle-aged woman was the first to react. “There are two dangerous corpses stored there for over three hundred years. I remember their characteristics…”

Wei Huaqian: “The night is long and full of dreams. Isolate the storage area and use magic to destroy it.”

The other three fell silent instantly.

“That’s… quite severe.” Minister Han was the first to react.

Valuables had long been transferred to the closed area, so the items sent in the past seven days were all low-value personal items. The value of the corpse vault was much higher than that of the storage area, so the urgent matter was to eliminate any anomaly as soon as possible.

He quickly pulled out his phone and gave instructions.

Wei Huaqian had been staring at Minister Zou on the screen the entire time, tapping his fingers on the desk from time to time.

Less than ten seconds after Minister Han hung up the phone, the screen suddenly switched. Thick metal plates dropped on both sides of the gate, completely separating the relic warehouse from the corpse vault.

On the other side of those flashing, blurry colored blocks, Zhong Chengshuo and the guard stopped in their tracks.

The guard let out a sob.

As a guard at the Sunken Society Haigu Branch, he had at least figured out the various hidden rules of the organization. Now that all escape routes had been completely blocked, Sunken Society had no intention of letting him go back alive.

Next, there would definitely be a “great purge”.

Zhong Chengshuo sighed. “Faster than I thought.”

As he spoke, the pale green walls around them suddenly lit up, casting an ominous glow that made the hallway look like day time. Zhong Chengshuo kicked the guard, who was as still as a statue, and pounced on him.

The green light covered both of them from head to toe, shining brightly and continuously.

Even though Zhong Chengshuo managed to block most of the light, the guard’s limbs were still exposed to the green light. He made an inhuman groaning sound, and when he moved slightly, his limbs were left behind like decorations made of sand, instantly turning into flesh-colored powder.

There was no blood from the cut. The guard twisted his body in confusion, as if commanding his now disappeared limbs.

He didn’t even realize that half of his head had been cut off, leaving only a fragmented wound covered in powder.

“Ah… Ah…” the guard murmured. “Why… I’m only half a cultivator… Why is it so serious…”

He turned his remaining eye around in desperation. “Why… are you fine… Why…”

Before he could finish speaking, the guard began to cough violently. Flesh-colored powder mixed with blood splattered on the ground.

Zhong Chengshuo was like a dead umbrella, silently propping himself up on the guard’s body, creating a small patch of shade in the green light.

“I’m leaving,” Zhong Chengshuo said calmly. “You can tell me the direction of the relic warehouse or you can remain silent.”

The guard looked at him in fear and despair with tears overflowing from his remaining eye.

“The guards of Sunken Society’s corpse vault are usually ordinary cultivators who have been in the organization for at least ten years. You know they experiment on people, but you still want to help guard it. A miserable death is a common outcome.”

Zhong Chengshuo lowered his eyes, looking directly at the muddy pupils of the corpse, revealing a thick darkness. His voice was becoming softer, with a sound like liquid seepage, almost as if he was trying to soothe a crying baby to sleep.

The guard shook his head desperately, like a leaf in the wind, causing the missing pieces of his head to fall like sand.

Fear.

Zhong Chengshuo quietly chewed on his fear, frozen in place like a plant. Time ticked by slowly until he finally bent down and whispered something into the guard’s ear.

The guard’s tears gushed down as he too muttered a response. After speaking, a miracle-like calmness washed over the guard’s once hopeless face.

……

Outside the screen, Wei Huaqian narrowed his eyes and stopped tapping his fingers on the table. They could only see Minister Zou slowly standing up, but he didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he stood there silently. The guard, now without limbs and only part of his head, was completely exposed to the light. He writhed like a salted slug, and in less than a minute, a living person was turned to dust amidst the magical radiance.

Only then did Minister Zou straighten his clothes and walk in a certain direction.

“The spell was ineffective. Isn’t that an evil thing?” Minister Han was shocked to see Minister Zou not reacting to the green light. “How is that possible?”

“That must be Minister Zou himself. Strange. Is his faith so firm? This is the guy that hangs a safety talisman in his car on purpose.” The middle-aged woman frowned. “But he specially protected that guard… The guard only has limited clearance and can’t go to high-level places.”

The old man hastily nodded in agreement.

The woman turned to Wei Huaqian carefully. “Boss, do we continue to monitor his actions? Maybe there will be more…”

“Stop the spell and let the cleanup crew in.” Wei Huaqian interrupted flatly.

The woman gasped in shock.

Clearly, there was no intention of leaving any survivors.

The cleanup crew was a group of fugitives that Sunken Society kept in its branches. They generally had little education and didn’t leave the branch much. In a sense, these villains were regarded as twisted science posts—they neither believed nor disbelieved in science and only cared about money and face.

They couldn’t achieve complete immunity to magic, but they were tough-skinned and could deal with weak cultivators.

Wei Huaqian seemed to ignore the gasp of his subordinate. He turned his head, propped his hands on his forehead, and stared intently at the screen.

Minister Han cleared his throat with difficulty. “How much can we adjust?”

“As much as we can.” There was a hint of amusement in Wei Huaqian’s voice.

He wanted to see how much this unknown thing was capable of. After all, as long as he obtained the remains of the body, he could hand it over to the research team—it would be interesting to have the technicians in Department 2 study the remains of their former boss.

In the video, Zhong Chengshuo started to jog. He tried to keep his head stable as he ran towards the location the guard had pointed out—the relics warehouse, just like the underground corpse vault, was also located on the bottom floor. This wasn’t because it was super important, but simply because Sunken Society had killed too many “human guinea pigs” and accumulated too many relics.

This was his only chance.

Zhong Chengshuo had not run for long when he heard hurried and chaotic footsteps behind him. The once silent corridor suddenly became chaotic, and the overlapping echoes made the space crowded.

Conversations and running sounds came at him from several directions at the same time, full of hostility.

Without hesitation, Zhong Chengshuo instantly accelerated and rushed towards his destination. He jumped down each flight of stairs at an almost falling speed that the soles of his shoes barely scraped against the ground. He focused intensely on the small cellphone charm laying somewhere underground, as if it was the most important thing in the world.

Unfortunately, he was one step too late.

Just when he was one floor away from his destination, he was blocked by the chasing soldiers who had caught up to him.

The elevator in the storage area could go straight to the deepest level, and a group of them had even come up from underground to block him. Zhong Chengshuo was trapped at the corner of the staircase.

This group of people approached from all sides, looking down on “Minister Zou” with contempt, as if they were looking at a piece of meat on a cutting board.

“It’s a fat pig that runs fast.” One of them taunted, causing a few scattered laughs.

Zhong Chengshuo quickly scanned all the unexpected guests. The people sent by Sunken Society this time had nothing to do with cultivators.

As far as Zhong Chengshuo could see, there were at least twenty people, and there were even more outside the corridor. These people were strong, wore “cloth armor” made of fiber with hard protective parts on key areas, and wore protective helmets similar to football helmets on their heads.

Pairs of eyes peered out from the helmets, and Zhong Chengshuo was familiar with that look and those eyes—they had all appeared on the A-level wanted list.

Murderers.

Apparently, Sunken Society allowed its lackeys to have a little personality. The criminals had clubs, butterfly knives, and triangular blades, and the most extreme ones had shovels and machetes.

Perhaps considering the problem of accidental injury in a small space, there were no weapons of mass destruction such as shotguns.

Zhong Chengshuo quickly scanned the nearby lighting and cameras, moved his joints, and silently lowered his center of gravity. If he still had a heart, his heart rate at this moment would definitely shatter his ribs.

Half a second.

With these big executioners crowding together, and the originally cramped corridor seemed even more suffocating. The gaps between them weren’t even big enough for a child to stand in, so it was hard to find even a glimmer of life among them.

One second.

As long as he made a tiny mistake, this group of people could hold him down with their weight alone.

The next moment.

“Yo, this idiot still wants to move…” A thin man with a butterfly knife hadn’t finished his sentence when his tongue froze in his mouth.

The butterfly knife in his hand disappeared.

With a few light cracks, the butterfly knife was dismantled into three pieces in Zhong Chengshuo’s hand. Before the others could react, Zhong Chengshuo had flung the handle and the blade of the disassembled knife, instantly shattering the nearest three lighting fixtures.

This time, the darkness was even more complete than in the corpse vault.

The criminals on the cleanup crew weren’t stupid. The ones in front relied on their position to shout and charge directly at Zhong Chengshuo, trying to suppress him with a sea of people. But that bloated “Minister Zou ” was like a phantom, evaporating on the spot.

What followed was a warm and sticky liquid.

It sprayed everywhere, splattering everyone’s faces and bodies. When the criminals reacted and turned on their emergency lights, five seconds had already passed.

The surroundings were dark and blood-red.

The people in front had become headless bodies—the sturdy cloth armor and hard helmets couldn’t withstand the swift and precise knife strikes on their necks.

The heads had rolled on the ground with their helmets still on, while the bodies had collapsed with a dull thud. The ground was wet and slippery with blood. These people all had sharp weapons in their hands, but their movements had slowed down unconsciously.

“It’s a machete! My brother has lost his machete!”

“Fuck! That guy ran down. Chase him!”

At the same time, Zhong Chengshuo picked up a spare head with one arm, and with a machete in one hand, he came to a sudden stop at the bottom of the stairs.

As fate would have it, he didn’t have time to run far. The unfortunate end of the stairs had no elevator or transitional hall; only a plain metal door stood in the open. Next to it was the damn facial recognition device—this time, Minister Zou no longer had authority to open it.

He was just a door away from his hamster pendant.

Dozens of people had swarmed down the stairs behind him; their footsteps sounding like torrential rain. There was only a dead end in front of him, but even though his heart no longer existed, Zhong Chengshuo still felt a suffocating squeeze in his chest.

The familiar fear hit him again like a shot of adrenaline.

He didn’t want it to end.

Instead of the bank-style “vault” doors like the underground corpse vault, it was an ordinary metal door.

He held a thick-backed machete in his hand and a hard helmet that still had a head attached to it.

He didn’t want it to end.

Two seconds later, Zhong Chengshuo kicked hard at the door lock. He paid no attention to the dangerous cracking sound of the bones in his leg and kicked again. After four or five kicks, there was a slight deformation on the door.

Zhong Chengshuo raised the machete and precisely inserted the blade into a small gap. Then he jammed the head into the door frame and used all his strength to pry it open.

Crack.

The deformation of the door wasn’t significant, but the gap had widened a lot.

Time seemed to slow down, and countless equations floated through Zhong Chengshuo’s mind. He kicked his battered legs repeatedly, creating several gaps in different positions.

Just as he lifted his foot again, a dozen gunshots rang out. A wave of heat hit his back, and his left eye instantly lost sensation.

His back was riddled with bullets, and his left eye was probably shot through.

He had felt pain, but not much. It was more like a numb, dull ache, accompanied by the subtle sensation of foreign objects entering his body.

Compared to the sniper’s explosive bomb, this level of power was nothing.

Zhong Chengshuo used a flying kick, causing the metal door to shake unbearably and then collapse. There was no sound behind him. Zhong Chengshuo didn’t know if the criminals were scared by him, an “undead zombie”, or if they had other thoughts. He simply lifted his bent right leg and limped into the relic warehouse.

The hamster pendant Yin Ren gave him was there.

He remembered it clearly. It was a little hamster with “Wealth and Prosperity” attached to it.

However, the moment he saw the large relic warehouse clearly, another kind of fear crawled up and plunged into his back like a knife.

This was indeed a “large” warehouse for relics.

This underground warehouse was so big that he couldn’t see the end at a glance. The shelves led directly into the ceilings and were about six meters high, full of messy objects: common clothing, suitcases, handbags, and other casual items. Some damaged cameras lay quietly in the dust, and the cleaning tools used by the cleaners were also dumped in the gaps in the shelves. The skin of various balls was old and damaged, and most of them were deflated.

Stationery, books, bows…

Water cups, sneakers, remote controls…

The metal shelves used bones bonded together by glue and were piled high, making an extremely colorful but bleak maze.

His hamster pendant was just a drop of water in this sea of objects.

Zhong Chengshuo shook his head and forced himself to remain calm.

His task was still here, and theoretically, the possibility of completion wasn’t zero.

This wasn’t the end.

……

“He has been on the run for how long?” Minister Han asked cautiously.

“Fifteen hours and twenty-eight minutes.” The middle-aged woman rotated the steel pen in her hand. There were two empty lunch boxes by her side. “The boss instructed that if we can’t solve it in 24 hours, we have to consider a full lockdown of the relic warehouse. If he wanted to create a scene, I suspect he would have done it from the start.”

Since Minister Zou’s destination was the dull “relic warehouse”, Wei Huaqian was too lazy to watch a bunch of people play hide-and-seek and left before noon.

He ordered his people to completely seal off the underground corpse vault, wait until they knew the situation of the “evil being” that escaped before continuing further inventory work.

Once they entered the relic warehouse, there was no turning back—

The relic warehouse, internally referred to as the “dead man’s dump” contained “material items” that were tasteless to eat, a waste to discard, and could be completely sealed off.

Full lockdown meant they would lower the separators and fix the suspicious intruder in place. Then, they would completely seal off several divided spaces, pour in liquid nitrogen, and destroy all the physical things inside.

Now it was already late at night, and in the picture, “Minister Zou” was still limping and running away. In the vast “garbage dump”, that guy was dragging his broken body, painfully and awkwardly fleeing.

After taking so many bullets and still being able to move, he could only be a dead man. As for why this thing could evade magic, they would soon have an answer—

“Minister Zou” was already on his last breath.

He killed more than a dozen criminals, but they were all tough guys in the cleanup crew. Even if the crazy Minister Zou cut them down, they could still tear off one or two pieces of flesh in return. In contrast, Minister Zou could only strip the corpses and get some clothes to block his wounds.

He was like a small animal that knew it was about to be slaughtered, fleeing with a desperate and sad momentum.

What a pitiful guy. The middle-aged woman yawned.

“Minister Han, you continue to watch. I’ll go back first.” She stretched her neck.

The picture was too blurry, and there were too many obstacles in that ghostly place. It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t watch for a while. After all, the end was about to come, she thought.

Minister Han nodded obediently.

In a place they couldn’t see, Zhong Chengshuo used the cover of miscellaneous objects and gradually changed his blood-stained clothes, becoming more and more similar to the appearance of the criminals.

Half an hour later, a criminal bent down and sewed Minister Zou’s head onto another corpse. Then, he stood up unsteadily, covering his neck with the shadow of the helmet.

He played with the bayonet in his hand for a while as his bloodshot eyes scanned the dusty shelves. Slow motion covered the stiffness of his movements. This silent criminal, together with his other “companions,” continued to roam and explore.

But what others saw were just suspicious figures, and what he saw was the thickness of the accumulated dust.

At the same time.

“I know where our battlefield should be,” Yin Ren said.

“Wait, hold on. Don’t get excited yet. Even if the data is correct, I don’t know what this coordinate means!” Lu Xiaohe wiped the sweat from her face. “I need to study it. I have to wait until tomorrow when Fu Tianyi wakes up…”

Without hesitation, Yin Ren took out his phone and searched for Fu Tianyi’s phone number.

Lu Xiaohe: “…”

One day apart felt like three autumns have passed*, and this guy was becoming more and more ruthless.

*(一日不见如隔三秋) Idiom referring to the feeling of missing someone very much, as if even a short period of time apart feels like an eternity. It emphasizes one’s emotions when separated from a loved one or close friend.

“He must have gone to sleep as soon as he got back, so it makes no difference,” Yin Ren said while flipping through his contacts.

“I’m here.” A head with dark circles under his eyes stretched in from behind the door, sounding a bit resentful. “Miss Lu ran so loudly that it woke me up.”

“You came at the right time.”

“Also, do we need the assistance of Da Huang and Xiao Ge?” Lu Xiaohe tried to pull back the unrestrained Yin Ren. “You also need to rest…”

She hadn’t finished speaking when she saw the gap suddenly widen, like an eye suddenly opening.

This time, Yin Ren held on longer than any previous time.

In the darkness of the gap, various chaotic spatial bubbles were stacked, shimmering with strange textures of light.

“Fu Tianyi, I need more data,” Yin Ren said hoarsely.

“I just need to figure out one coordinate… Just one coordinate.”

Fu Tianyi was exhausted, as if his whole body had been run over by a car. “Breaking through the limit” was a training method, but he couldn’t help but mutter a few words of complaint. It was just that, when he saw Yin Ren’s expression clearly, he didn’t dare say anything.

In the dark waiting room, Yin Ren’s eyes were red as if a sharp blade had been unsheathed. He deliberately restrained his aura, but the oppressive feeling was still like a knife cutting through skin.

Fu Tianyi reached out with his sore and weak hand and tried to activate his power again.

He felt all the muscles in his body crushed into meat sauce. Even the most dangerous missions before weren’t as relentless as this endless night and day of feeling like his flesh was cut with a blunt knife.

Even though he grumbled in his heart, he didn’t hold back his power. Lu Xiaohe didn’t say anything more, and quickly started typing on the keyboard.

“Xiao Fu, be steady… I’ll adjust the space folding parameters…”

She didn’t even have time to wipe the sweat from her nose.

“Yin Ren, tonight I can only try to build a computational model as much as possible. I don’t have any equipment to simulate the signal right now, so I have to use the detection device from the Shian to adjust the gap. Promise me that when I finish the model, you’ll rest… Yin Ren?!”

Lu Xiaohe screamed, and Fu Tianyi was so scared that he lost his strength.

Without hesitation, Yin Ren tore off the hamster pendant from his phone and put his hand into the gap, then pulled it out. “The signal source is exactly the same. Is this okay?”

“It—it’s possible.” Lu Xiaohe swallowed hard.

It was possible, but she was afraid that if Yin Ren made a mistake, the gap would swallow his arm and the hamster pendant whole.

“Just in time.” Yin Ren’s hair tips couldn’t help but move as if to calm himself. “Trust me.”

Lu Xiaohe had just planned to get up from the chair, but then sat back down. She let out a deep sigh and said, “Anyway, I’ll take a break after I finish perfecting the algorithm. I won’t care about you anymore!”

“Thank you,” Yin Ren replied indifferently.

For the first time in his life, he was holding the hamster pendant in his hand that was full of sweat.

Finally, there was a turning point.

When he found the possible location of the hamster pendant, he used the opportunity to break through the “interstitial space” over there. The sniper had no reason to throw a phone pendant there, so Zhong Chengshuo must be nearby.

The answer he wanted was within reach, and after days of darkness, a glimmer of light finally appeared.

Yin Ren adjusted his breathing and was about to tear open the gap again when suddenly his hair stood on end—

A feeling of being watched.

Yin Ren’s black hair shot straight up and instantly passed over Lu Xiaohe and Fu Tianyi, who were both dumbfounded. Sure enough, the next moment, a bullet pierced through the window and directly hit where Lu Xiaohe was originally located.

The blinking machine was blown black, and the squeaking sounds of machinery stopping sounded one after another.

“Don’t worry!” Lu Xiaohe’s face was whiter than a corpse. She hugged her remaining laptop tightly, and her voice barely sounded calm. “My data is all in a private cloud, which he can’t destroy!”

As she spoke, she glanced at Yin Ren’s hair with the corner of her eye.

“You can always start over,” Yin Ren said. “As long as you find the way, you can always start over.”

The answer was another round of firepower suppression. Pure physical bullets poured in from the doors and windows, causing the floor of the waiting room to shatter, and sharp fragments flew everywhere. If it were a human, this situation would be enough to turn them into minced meat.

This time, Yin Ren didn’t hide his skills.

In the darkness, one protective spell after another lit up. They had obviously been modified—the surrounding space appeared to be distorted like water waves. They emitted a faint fluorescent light, cutting the view outside the protective shield like a mirage.

The protection gradually narrowed and stopped near the coffin where the corpse was located, just enough for three people to stand.

“Can we keep going?” Yin Ren asked Lu Xiaohe.

“Must be able to.” Lu Xiaohe smiled bitterly. “Unless you can throw me out of the country in one shot, I doubt he will keep sniping at me.”

“I can keep going too.” Fu Tianyi stared blankly at the protective spells around him. “I can do whatever you want me to do.”

“Very good.” Yin Ren clenched the hamster pendant in his hand.

He maintained the sturdy protective spell while reaching out his right hand. Yin Ren opened the gap again and used the hamster pendant to touch the interstitial space.

This time, just as he reached into those illusory spaces, a cold hand suddenly grabbed his wrist.

An unfamiliar hand.

Yin Ren instantly retracted his hand, and the gap quickly closed again. Just before it closed—

Bang!!!

A bullet flew out of the gap, grazing his tightly clenched right hand.

The bullet was off target.

Because the moment it touched him, Yin Ren’s right hand, along with the chubby hamster pendant, exploded into powder.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 143: Wish With Precaution

In the dark of night, the hour hand trembled slowly and pointed to ten o’clock.

Although testing intermittent data was important, people weren’t machines. High-intensity, concentrated work was exhausting, so Yin Ren urged everyone many times in advance to go back and rest—working soberly the next day was better than working groggily.

But Yin Ren didn’t follow the others back and stayed alone in the abandoned building.

To facilitate their movements, Fu Tianyi simply moved into Unit 9’s ward. The group of three in the ward had finished their supper and, except for Fu Tianyi, who had gone to bed right after, sat around a table.

Lu Xiaohe was worried and said, “I counted. Yin Ren had a bowl of porridge in the morning, a boiled egg at noon, and nothing for dinner. Now he’s not in our sight, and we don’t know how much he actually has slept… He won’t be able to keep going like this. Shall we buy something and bring it to him?”

She pulled up the takeout platform interface.

Huang Jin laughed inwardly. As a genuine evil, Yin Ren could theoretically live without eating. With so many evils in the world, he had never heard of any starving to death.

But he was also unable to understand why Yin Ren was so serious.

“Even if he’s on the verge of a breakdown, his emotions don’t seem to be collapsing into madness,” Huang Jin muttered. “He’s just scary in his determination. I don’t understand what he’s thinking…”

He had seen Yin Ren’s arms explode all day long to the point of blankness.

Lu Xiaohe thought it was some kind of mystical skill, while Ge Tingting only felt that Yin Ren was amazing. In the end, he had shouldered everything himself.

“What do you mean?” Ge Tingting argued with Huang Jin. “They were in a relationship, so it’s a bit much to think about other people’s grieving behavior.”

“How old are you? Do you understand anything?”

“You don’t even have a girlfriend.” Ge Tingting wrinkled her nose. “I seem to know a coward who is too scared to confess to Ding Jie.”

Huang Jin instantly choked up.

“Adults have to consider many things!” He coughed twice and wiped his nose hard. “It’s not like little kids nowadays, who get heartbroken at thirteen or fourteen, and think they’ve seen through the world at sixteen or seventeen… Lu Xiaohe, say something to her too!”

“What can I say? I’ve never been in a relationship either.” Lu Xiaohe was calm. “We science posts value practicality. Those who have no experience shouldn’t speak casually.”

Da Huang and Xiao Ge looked at her in surprise.

“Not surprising, right? I don’t want to date, and besides, my mother has been sick for a long time.” Lu Xiaohe shrugged. “As long as I talk about my family situation, even the most enthusiastic pursuer will run away.”

She fell silent for a moment.

“…Yin Ren said that if we successfully find Xiao Zhong, each of us can make a wish.” She moved her gaze away. “Do you think he’s serious?”

“Yes.” Huang Jin almost immediately answered. “But personally, I don’t recommend that you make a wish.”

There was a momentary freeze in Lu Xiaohe’s expression.

“You haven’t had much contact with the real world of metaphysics, so it’s normal not to understand,” Huang Jin said seriously, tapping his fingertips on the table.

“’Wishing’ is a very dangerous thing. If you’re not careful, you’ll be in deep trouble… There’s a saying among the Nightwalkers: ‘Don’t make wishes that cannot be fulfilled immediately.'”

“Because Sunken Society loves to make wish deals that cheat people,” Ge Tingting interjected.

“No, Sunken Society so-called wishes are generally fulfilled immediately. Money, power, fame, special abilities… all of them are contracted and delivered. But if it’s the kind of wish that cannot be immediately fulfilled, the wish maker will definitely be remembered.”

“Isn’t it a good thing to be remembered?” Ge Tingting asked curiously.

“If you make a wish that exceeds the abilities of an ordinary person, you have to weigh what ‘thing’ you are dealing with,” Huang Jin said in a low voice. “Neither of us seems to have accumulated enough virtue to withstand it, so we must be careful.”

Forget about accumulating virtue; they had probably committed enough sins in their past lives. Huang Jin sighed pessimistically.

Lu Xiaohe remained silent. A thought passed through her mind. ‘It doesn’t matter if I’m remembered or not.’ She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief instead.

“Anyway, that’s how it is. Even if you believe in Yin Ren, you must make your wish within the normal range.”

“After all that talk, you don’t believe in Yin Ren,” Ge Tingting summarized.

“You may know someone’s face, but not their heart. It’s not right to believe in someone we’ve only known for a few months, right?”

Ge Tingting typed furiously, and the AI voice continued, “But if Yin Ren doesn’t believe in us, there’s no need to show his sadness, right?”

“Yin Ren is very strong, and he didn’t reveal anything before. Such a strong person won’t easily reveal their true emotions in front of small fries.” ‘Unless he has ulterior motives.’ Huang Jin thought.

“Doesn’t that mean his sadness is real? He even offered the conditions for us ‘small fries’ to make wishes, so he must need help.” Ge Tingting furrowed her brows. “According to what you said, he has to suppress his emotions completely and handle the problem of Zhong Chengshuo by himself… Is that necessary considering his strength?”

Huang Jin opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“Or do you think that ‘small fries’ like us are not qualified to help someone as strong as Yin Ren? Huang Jin, do you think you have seen the world?”

Lu Xiaohe looked at them with enthusiasm as she took a sip of hot water.

“I don’t know what you’ve been through, and I haven’t seen much of the world either. But at the time of the Corpse Cage, I wanted to say that you’re always judging from a high horse, spouting a bunch of harsh words, and then coldly observing everything from the sidelines! Is it really so great to be able to see people’s thoughts?”

“If Yin Ren asks us for help, I’ll go and help. If Yin Ren is sad, then as teammates, we should find a way to help him. Why do you have to make simple things so complicated?”

Huang Jin’s expression suddenly changed.

He stood up abruptly and rushed out the door.

“?!” Ge Tingting was stunned.

She turned her head stiffly. “Xiaohe Jie, do you think he ran out to cry?”

As soon as the AI finished speaking, two messages suddenly appeared in the Shian WeChat group.

[Ten Thousand Taels: I have a new idea for making the tranquility talisman. Simply suppressing it may not be “strong”. I should handle it in a more simple way…unclog instead of block.]

[Ten Thousand Taels: @Ear Person, what I said earlier was a little inappropriate. Let me think about it again.]

[Ear Person: This is an apology, right? Senior forgives you.]

[Ten Thousand Taels: …… 👋]

He didn’t reply after that.

Ge Tingting played with her phone for a while. “Xiaohe Sister, I’m going to bed now. I have to get up early tomorrow.”

“Go ahead,” said Lu Xiaohe.

The two juniors had finally quieted down. Lu Xiaohe stretched and decided to wash her face. However, as soon as she stood up, something unusual suddenly entered her mind—

Huang Jin could see people’s thoughts? She had read the case report of the Bai Yongji case, which showed that Huang Jin could even see Fu Xingchuan’s thought process—even if Minister Fu could hide sensitive information through quick thinking, Huang Jin’s eyes would never miss any malicious intent.

Why is he so guarded against Yin Ren?

Lu Xiaohe pondered for a few seconds and sat down in front of the wall of machines. She logged into her expanded account and began to search for Yin Ren’s identity details in the employee database—if Yin Ren was really a powerful cultivator, Shian would definitely have supplementary information. Even if those data weren’t open to her, with Lu Xiaohe’s current permissions, she could at least see the indexes.

She opened the labyrinth-like related items of Shian layer by layer and quickly recorded the recording time of each task’s supplementary data.

Nothing.

There was nothing in the Shian system about Yin Ren’s identity.

Lu Xiaohe’s movements stopped, and the glow of the screen was reflected in her eyes, which blinked incessantly.

Even if Yin Ren was an unknown powerful person, even if Yin Ren was the biological father of Sunken Society leader, Shian would still truthfully record it in the system.

…Why is there nothing?

With this thought in mind, only a member of the Fu family could activate the Corpse Cage. The one who really constructed the internal spatial technique was the ancient Charon, Fu Wuya.

However, Yin Ren was trying to keep the Corpse Cage running so he could analyze the spatial technique.

Is the spatial technique something that can be learned at will? If not, why does Yin Ren have abilities close to a Charon?

But before she could draw a conclusion, another alert sounded.

The progress of unlocking Zhong Chengshuo’s hamster device had finally reached 100%.

Lu Xiaohe jumped up from her chair, clamped the laptop under her arm, and ran towards the night wearing slippers.

Fifteen minutes ago, in the abandoned building.

Yin Ren was once again forced to close the gap.

The space itself was too solid, and he was like an ant trying to move a mountain. Even if he could learn Fu Wuya’s technique or use the limited activation time of the Corpse Cage with Fu Tianyi’s support, it wasn’t enough to completely decipher the spatial magic.

But even though he didn’t know the way, he didn’t want to stop and rest.

He was like an angry prisoner, repeatedly hitting the sturdy prison door.

He believed there was always a way. At least during these eight or nine hours of the night, he may be able to loosen the door a bit more, and a little more looser was better than nothing.

The ear-piercing sound of space tearing and closing and the sticky sound of flesh exploding were better than the silence of an empty place.

Crack!

The gap was torn open for the umpteenth time, and this time it stayed open for half a second longer than before.

There was no direct road to another world inside the gap. On the contrary, it was dark inside, with countless large and semi-transparent cavities that looked like enlarged pomegranates.

Each cavity was blurry, with different scenery shadows visible inside. Those shadows constantly twisted and squeezed each other, and the colors mixed together, forming a dim compound eye that made people nauseous.

This immature gap led to a strange space close to the human world but was absolutely deserted.

No one knew where a mature gap would lead, and those who entered it never returned.

At this moment, Yin Ren only had this gap that was about to collapse. It was shallower than an immature gap, and the countless colorful masses inside it were like unopened “passages.” On the other side, perhaps it was already in a deeper, more untouchable place.

Even if he could open a path, where should he lead Mr. Qiu?

Numbly, amidst the excruciating pain of flesh and blood bursting, Yin Ren thought to himself.

If Mr. Qiu’s body was the same as Qi Xin’s, and damage wasn’t fundamental, what should he do? He had to prepare for the worst and choose a battlefield that was inaccessible…

Not far away, Lu Xiaohe’s device suddenly emitted a pleasant beeping sound.

It was Zhong Chengshuo’s hamster device that was just cracked!

Yin Ren stopped thinking instantly and hurriedly ran to Lu Xiaohe’s device. Unfortunately, the device was too complicated. His fingers were groping in a hurry, and he didn’t know how to start it. He wanted to press randomly, but he was afraid of mishandling it and destroying the hard-earned data.

Fortunately, in less than three minutes, Lu Xiaohe, with disheveled hair and a dirty face, rushed in with the laptop in her hand.

“Get out of the way!” she shouted with the typical arrogance of a science post, rushing towards the screen like a cannonball, almost leaving afterimages of her fingers.

Countless obscure and difficult-to-understand data instantly filled the screen. Lu Xiaohe’s eyes moved quickly, and the screen scrolled down one by one. Yin Ren was nervously staring at Lu Xiaohe’s expression, feeling helpless for a while.

Lu Xiaohe’s expression went from excitement to confusion, and finally settled into “worry”.

Yin Ren’s hopeful red eyes dimmed, and he remained silent.

“…The positioning result has indeed come out.” Lu Xiaohe cleared her throat twice. “But the coordinates are very strange… I have calculated it several times, and they are all coordinates that should not exist in the world. There is always an additional correction parameter… I’m sorry, this explanation is hard to understand, isn’t it?”

She thought for a while.

“Simply put, if Zhong Chengshuo’s algorithm is correct, the hamster pendant is in a space that does not exist in the world.”

“Zhong Chengshuo’s algorithm won’t be wrong.”

Yin Ren answered very confidently.

“His algorithms especially can’t be wrong now.”

Wait a minute.

A space that doesn’t exist in the world.

The Other Side was a space that didn’t exist in the world. According to Shian’s information, dead objects couldn’t enter The Other Side. That meant the hamster pendant was in a place between “this world” and “The Other Side”.

It neither existed in this world, nor was it truly in The Other Side… For example, it could be in an immature or already decaying gap.

Yin Ren stared fiercely at the now-closed huge gap. His gaze penetrated through the darkness and looked towards the countless blurred images revealed when it was opened.

“Very good,” he said.

“I know where the battlefield should be now.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 142: Trap

In the early morning, Qiu Fang was standing in an alley without surveillance.

Unlike the crowd around him, who were looking down at their phones, he had nothing in his hands. His plain white T-shirt had no pockets, and his tight-fitting jeans revealed that he had nothing inside.

Qiu Fang’s face was relatively clean, and his outfit made him stand out on the street. Unfortunately, the dark alley was filled with smelly garbage cans, rats scurrying along the walls, and unconscious thugs.

Several badly dressed young people were lying on the ground, unconscious, with blood stains all over the ground. A few teeth were scattered in the blood. Qiu Fang leaned against the wall, without a single drop of blood on him, looking at the people on the ground with disgust, as if he were looking at cockroaches turned upside down.

Qiu Fang stood motionless for half an hour, watching those people struggling to breathe, until suddenly he turned his head and looked in the direction of Haigu Municipal Hospital.

“The gap is shaking,” he murmured to himself. “Someone is breaking into the gap there.”

Then he fell silent, as if listening to someone’s reply.

“It’s definitely not you, and it’s not Miss Qi… Mr. Le is not nearby… Sunken Society doesn’t have this kind of power. Could it be that they have made some kind of research breakthrough?” Qiu Fang frowned.

He made a gesture with his hand, as if holding a gun, and pointed towards the hospital, but didn’t take any further action.

“No, that person’s spatial magic is similar to the Fu family’s, so it’s not easy to target.” Qiu Fang lowered his arm. “I need to attack up close.”

Then he fell silent again, as if listening to something.

“My opinion is the same as that guy’s. You’d better not go.” A female voice came from above.

Qiu Fang looked up and saw Qi Xin in a gray-black suit. She smiled faintly and looked down at him with her sparse brows.

“You can’t aim at him and forcing you to show up at close range is clearly a trap. Mr. Qiu, although I understand your ‘nature’ of provoking disputes, attacking the Fu family is too reckless, don’t you think?” Her tone was very light, but it made him uncomfortable.

“It’s just a group of humans.”

Qiu Fang spat.

“If it weren’t for the ‘ending’ we want being too troublesome, I could easily kill them all. I just played with them casually before and don’t need you to get involved.”

“Is that so?” Qi Xin smiled more meaningfully. “Thanks to humans, you have been able to grow rapidly in the past few thousand years and sit on an equal footing with us. Humans also like to say that they should have a sense of awe towards food.”

Qiu Fang had no choice but to look up at Qi Xin, and he didn’t bother to hide his disgust.

Qi Xin remained unmoved. Her facial expression twisted so much that it didn’t look like a “smile”. “Besides, you are obviously the most human-like among the four of us, aren’t you?”

Qiu Fang was shocked. His eyes bulged as something quickly surged in his shadow, forming dark whirlpools.

“Not long ago, you attacked the Fu family, causing someone to be traumatized and seek revenge during that crazy attack. If they really break through to our side, who will be responsible?” Qi Xin continued in a calm and collected manner, as if she hadn’t seen his reaction.

“That’s enough.”

Two voices from the shadows simultaneously spoke on the dusty glass of the alleyway.

One was a gentle female voice.

“Mr. Qiu has been working hard to expel potential invaders, and his previous behavior was instinctive. Don’t provoke him.”

“I didn’t provoke him,” Qi Xin lightly said. “I’m just advising him not to fall into a trap.”

“I’ll go.”

The moment he heard the woman’s voice, Qiu Fang instantly stopped the whirlpool. He scratched his hair, but accidentally tore off a piece of his scalp due to the force.

“A trap? Even if humans dig out their six Evil Spirits and attack together, it’s just a finger’s work for me. With them, how big a storm can they make? If that gap is really opened up by humans, I’ll be fucking ridiculed by this surnamed Qi every day.”

Qi Xin looked in the direction of the hospital and smirked.

“You and him can go together and settle it quickly,” the shadow on the glass lip-synced, making a sound that only they could hear. “The top priority is to close the gap.”

“I’m not going.” Qi Xin tidied up her scattered hair and narrowed her eyes. “If I follow him, won’t it ruin Mr. Qiu’s enthusiasm? Besides, I’m not interested in this kind of fighting. Even if I win, there will be no food to eat.”

“I don’t need an old bastard like you to deal with a few pieces of trash,” Qiu Fang sneered.

The shadows on the window sighed together.

“I understand,” the woman’s voice said, even gentler now. “The Haigu branch of Sunken Society is just below the hospital and is also built on a shrinking gap. You should act swiftly and don’t touch Sunken Society for now.”

“Okay.” Mr. Qiu bowed to the shadows on the glass.

He walked out of the alleyway quickly without even a glance at Qi Xin.

“You were a little harsh just now.” The woman’s voice became even more gentle. “He’s still young, and his nature affects him. We’re all companions working together. Why be so harsh on him?”

“Maybe I don’t like playing the ‘hero game’.”

Qi Xin grabbed a stone from the wall and weighed it in her hand. “I’ve never been a ‘righteous partner’ with you guys. I just promised not to make trouble. Stop using your methods on me.”

Crack!

Qi Xin flung the stone, hitting the glass window and shattering the shadow figures.

Confirming that those broken shadows would no longer move on their own, she lightly clapped her hands and also looked in the direction of the Haigu Municipal Hospital.

The smile on her face became even more apparent.

……

Zhong Chengshuo had some free time and followed the same route back, carefully disposing of Minister Zou’s body.

Confirming that there were no monitoring devices on the upper floors, his movements became much more calm.

With two bodies, he could do a lot more—

Minister Zou’s head was also finely cut off by him, and he became more proficient at it with practice. This time, Zhong Chengshuo had sewn it more skillfully.

Minister Zou was slightly taller than Zhang Wei and had a slightly larger body so Zhong Chengshuo put Zhang Wei’s clothes on the outer layer of the lining and adjusted it to roughly match the appearance, then he put on a coat. The sturdy and beautiful body was covered up, suddenly appearing much richer and almost identical to Minister Zou from before.

Maybe it was because his neural processing was more refined, this time he was much more precise in manipulating the head; at least not as slowly as before.

After doing all this, Zhong Chengshuo stepped out of the morgue again. He moved forward along the clear route in his mind and walked all the way to the elevator.

Ding.

After a long time, the elevator’s crisp sound echoed on the first floor of the morgue.

At the door of the underground morgue.

“The elevator just rang,” the human guard said.

“Yes, the elevator rang.” The zombie guard picked his nose. “That guy who went down just now finally came back. I thought we were going to lose another one. I don’t know if he found what he was looking for. Let him fill out a brief record form later.”

Half an hour passed.

The tall, thin human guard said, “Strange, why isn’t Minister Zou coming out? Can it be that he could still get lost on the first floor?”

“Who knows.” The zombie guard continued to concentrate on picking his nose. “Maybe he ran into something and got scared.”

Ding.

In the corridor behind the two guards, a faint and distant sound was heard, which was the sound of the elevator arriving on the first floor.

The two guards looked at each other.

Ding.

Five minutes later, the sound rang again.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

In the underground morgue, where no one was supposed to be, the crisp electronic sound effect was extremely regular, with intervals of almost exactly one second. The human guard immediately got goosebumps all over his body. He glanced at the tightly closed door of the underground morgue and rubbed his exposed forearm.

“This is not right. Go check the surveillance.”

The zombie guard sprayed out a disdainful breath and slowly moved to the side guard room. The screen was full of surveillance footage.

The “Minister Zou” who entered a while ago was shown in the footage.

The picture was dim near the elevator door, which creaked and rattled as it slid open. Minister Zou’s shadow stretched long down the corridor. When the elevator door opened completely, he walked out normally, but then walked backwards step by step.

The indicator light blinked, and the elevator descended.

Five minutes passed, and the elevator arrived on the first floor again. The door opened as usual, and the above scene repeated. If it weren’t for the constantly advancing time on the surveillance footage, the zombie would almost think that this was a looped video.

Strange things happened frequently, but those monsters usually came straightforwardly. There were rarely such… bizarre phenomena.

As a zombie guard who had been dead for more than ten years, it was the first time he felt a little scared.

He leaned closer to the screen, carefully observing the details of the footage.

Minister Zou’s face was calm and his movements were natural, indicating there was no stiffness which meant he shouldn’t be controlled or possessed. His clothes were clean, and there were no suspicious marks on them.

The eerie loop continued, and this “normal” scene made the zombie guard even more uneasy.

“Minister Zou seems to have been possessed. You go in and take a look. I’ll stay here and guard.” The zombie rubbed the non-existent goosebumps and tremblingly returned to his post.

“You can’t say that,” the human guard said sternly. “You’re the monster here, and the other side is just an ordinary person possessed by an evil spirit. Why don’t you go? I’m flesh and blood and may end up in the hospital.”

The zombie gritted his teeth angrily and pushed open the thick door.

The corridor leading to the elevator was neither short nor long. The zombie nervously sharpened his nails, ready to attack at any moment.

Ding.

The elevator door opened slowly again, and Minister Zou appeared in front of the zombie guard with a calm expression.

Zhong Chengshuo quickly scanned the zombie in front of him.

Not too long ago, wearing a staff uniform, the evil qi emanating from his body was typical of Sunken Society. Such zombies were artificially created and durable, but not particularly powerful.

Nearby guards.

Zhong Chengshuo took two steps forward, and this time he didn’t retreat into the elevator.

“Just you?” The zombie looked behind him. “What about Zhang Wei?”

Zhong Chengshuo shook his head.

Seeing that “Minister Zou” could still react normally, the zombie relaxed. “What was that all about just now, going up and down like that? Are you playing with us?”

Zhong Chengshuo continued to shake his head, pressing his temple hard and pointing to his neck, making a dizzying gesture.

“Oh, your throat is injured, no wonder there’s a bloody smell.” The zombie sniffed. “It’s not that bad. There’s no evil qi on your body. You were probably just possessed. When you go out, have someone exorcize you.”

Zhong Chengshuo nodded pitifully.

With the zombie in front and him behind, the two walked straight towards the door. But as they passed the corner and reached the final exit corridor, the zombie’s steps slowed down.

“Something isn’t right,” it muttered. “I just felt it. Your human smell is too weak, almost like a freshly dead person…urgh!”

It didn’t finish the sentence.

Zhong Chengshuo’s hand pierced through its flesh directly, stabbing the corpse talisman inside that was as vital as a heart. The movement of his hand was as precise as that of a scalpel, directly breaking through its weakest defense and hitting the vital point.

The zombie had never been so scared—comparable to a bank clerk with a gun pointed at his back.

“You… You… You have something to say. We’re all evil things, so there’s nothing we can’t talk about.”

“I’m not an evil thing,” Zhong Chengshuo said in a low voice. “Cooperate with me. Take me out, and you might still have a chance to survive,” he continued solemnly.

Feeling the hand lightly scraping the corpse talisman, the zombie’s teeth chattered.

The human guard quickly saw his monster colleague.

Looking through the peephole from afar, the zombie was leading Minister Zou out. Minister Zou looked fine, but the two seemed a bit too familiar, with their shoulders hooked and their faces close together.

There was no expression on the zombie’s face, and his steps seemed even stiffer than usual.

“Hurry up, fill out the registration form, and get out.” The human guard put his heart back in his stomach. “Seriously, we still haven’t found anyone, and we’re just causing trouble for ourselves.”

Zhong Chengshuo nodded sincerely and glanced at the nearby light.

“Alright, hurry up and come out.” The human guard kept muttering, but then saw Minister Zou maintaining the posture of “embracing” the zombie, taking off his own work card with one hand.

“Registration doesn’t require a card…”

Before the human guard could finish his sentence, a thin work card flew past his temple and directly shattered the only lamp at the entrance of the morgue.

The surrounding area instantly plunged into darkness.

Bang!

In an instant, the nearby guard room was tightly closed.

Zhong Chengshuo, who was stuck in the small guard room, slowly took off his obstructive lab coat.

“Hello. Excuse me, where are the personal items of the corpses stored?”

He spoke softly with a gentle tone.

“I want to get my things back.”

---

The author has something to say:

Xiao Zhong: That’s the token of love my lover gave me (referring to the hamster).

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 141: Getting Closer

The beef buns near the hospital were famous, and despite Lu Xiaohe and the others eating with restraint, the fragrant meat smell still entered Yin Ren’s nose.

In the past, he would have bought a dozen buns to take home. Zhong Chengshuo would express a slight dissatisfaction with this greasy taste and then help him make crispy bottom pan-fried buns—he had bought buns here before and specifically asked Zhong Chengshuo to help make something similar.

Yin Ren remembered that the man was wearing the “Dangerous Person” apron, pursing his lips, and frying the buns as if doing an experiment.

At that time, he was lying on the sofa playing with his tablet, and he could see Zhong Chengshuo just by raising his head. Amidst the sizzling sound of frying buns, Zhong Chengshuo would sometimes turn his head to look over. The man didn’t often smile, but when he met Yin Ren’s gaze, he would tilt his head slightly, indicating “I caught you”.

Then Yin Ren would look more upright and even use a little hair to harass him.

At the time, he only felt that those fragments were ordinary. He thought he would miss the thrills in the abandoned amusement park and the moment of redemption in the Archive more, but what pressed him down were all these small details.

They were hidden in every corner of his life and would come to mind if he wasn’t careful.

Compared with that, the years he spent in the wilderness were like a blank piece of paper.

‘Liking mortals is too terrible,’ Yin Ren thought.

But if he were given another chance… If he were given another chance…

He would still be attracted to that annoying yet lovable guy.

The smell of the buns still lingered at the tip of his nose, but Yin Ren had no appetite. He subconsciously touched the pocket of his pants—a small hardcover notebook was placed in his pocket, and every page was written with “I’m fine”.

It was a hope he wanted to touch but didn’t dare to.

Yin Ren was lost in thought when Dog Thing vibrated.

“Yes?” Yin Ren skillfully answered the phone.

“The Corpse Cage just reacted. There is a Fu family member nearby.” Fu Xingchuan restrained his tone as much as possible. “You asked us to send the Corpse Cage over earlier and said you had a way… Is your way to catch Fu Tianyi to do the job?”

“The elders of the Fu family are either rooted in place or busy outside, and someone has to control the Corpse Cage.” Yin Ren casually twirled his hair and spoke with a smile, but there was no smile in his eyes. “Although I can also flay a piece of the Fu family’s blood alive and make it into a spirit weapon to pass it off as real, that’s still a bit inhumane for this era.”

Fu Tianyi swallowed a mouthful of millet porridge with difficulty, looking puzzled. The other three members of Unit 9 didn’t find anything unusual and were busy grabbing the last tea egg on the table.

Fu Xingchuan sighed. “Fu Tianyi is only 21 years old and has never been in contact with many Corpse Cage-related spells. He is also proud and arrogant. Moreover, his previous mission was dangerous, but the preparations were all fully done… “

“Fu Xingchuan, just say what you want to say.”

“This is just great!” Fu Xingchuan coughed a few times and suppressed the laughter in his voice. “I’m here to convey the words of the ancestor and my personal attitude… Use him as much as you want, and be sure to be ruthless, but leave him with some leeway.”

Yin Ren: “……”

As expected, the Fu family was still the Fu family; each one abnormal in their own way. Yin Ren had just wanted to hang up the phone when he heard the voice on the other end of the line become a little more serious.

“As for the sniper case, Shian’s current focus is on ‘preventing cross-dimensional attacks’. Although we won’t stop tracking the attacker, Shian will definitely prioritize preventing such incidents.”

Fu Xingchuan’s tone became more serious.

“You can ask Lu Xiahe to pay attention to Shian’s research on space. I don’t care about your methods, but I just need you to remember one thing—our ‘innocent pact’ can’t be wronged.”

“I remember,” Yin Ren replied succinctly.

“Good. By the way, do you and Xiao Zhong know a doctor at the hospital? I remember she was surnamed Sun… Be careful and don’t reveal anything in front of familiar faces.”

Dr. Sun?

Yin Ren’s hand, which was stroking the hardcover book, suddenly stopped.

“I remembered an interesting thing. Go and help me check the ‘enemy’ who was hospitalized before, but be careful not to use Shian’s official investigation methods.”

“Clues?”

“It’s not very useful. Just something I thought of.”

Even if the sniper was really Mr. Qiu, that “Mr. Qiu” could easily pretend to be ignorant, especially given the “perfect human disguise” of Qi Xin. If they rashly investigate, they might stir up trouble.

This matter wasn’t easy, and only the “#1 Ghost General” could handle it.

“Ah, my leg isn’t healed yet…” Fu Xingchuan muttered. “Okay, I’ll think of a way.”

On the other side, Fu Tianyi gradually stopped stirring his porridge. His expression became more and more anxious.

Yin Ren’s tone didn’t sound like he was speaking to the “#1 Ghost General” at all. Instead, it was more like an elder communicating with a junior.

Who is this guy?

Half an hour later, Fu Tianyi stopped thinking about this question.

Lu Xiahe sat in a corner of the waiting room. As the numbers on the temporary screen wall were changing frantically, Huang Jin murmured to himself, while constantly strengthening the defensive array around him. Ge Tingting stood next to Yin Ren, ready to assist Fu Tianyi, who for the first time was going to assist the bride into the sedan chair*.

*Clarity: This line is basically saying, normally Fu Tianyi is the person being lifted in the sedan chair (being supported by others), but now, he’s the one doing the lifting.

“Activate the Corpse Cage, and I’ll take a closer look at how the spell works,” Yin Ren said.

“What do I need to do?” Fu Tianyi took a deep breath.

“Remember this pattern, infuse it with power, and stop when I say so.” Yin Ren reached out his hand, and a set of runes appeared above the coffin in an instant. “Tingting, make sure to stabilize the corpse, so that it doesn’t move too much.”

How did Yin Ren know such a spell? Perhaps he had a close relationship with the Fu family as this spell had been passed down by the ancestor. Fu Tianyi silently recited it three times in his heart, barely holding back his curiosity.

It wasn’t too difficult to maintain the input of power.

He used eight points of strength from the beginning, but the output of power was like a drop in the bucket. In just a few minutes, Fu Tianyi’s power began to fluctuate, causing the Corpse Cage to shake uncontrollably. Ge Tingting’s face turned red, as she continued to pour power into the body, hoping to keep it from moving around in the coffin.

His performance was utterly terrible.

Fu Tianyi’s face turned pale as he put out the maximum strength he could muster—in his usual tasks, this strength would be enough to deliver a decisive blow.

The Corpse Cage finally convulsed, and a layer of faint light appeared on the surface of the rotten skin.

“Okay,” Yin Ren said. “With this intensity, let’s try to sustain it for four hours.”

However, Fu Tianyi couldn’t even last for four seconds. After a frustrated burst of output, he sat on the ground like he had just climbed out of a pool.

“I can’t hold on…” He weakly pressed his temple. “The patterns are too complicated, and the power requirements are too high…”

“Is that so?” Yin Ren remained noncommittal.

“I personally improved the control technique. I only wanted it to maintain its startup state without having to confront enemies,” Yin Ren said casually. “The power consumption and complexity of this spell have been reduced by about half… and someone like you is the strongest of the new generation of the Fu family?”

“Is it possible to modify a technique of this level?” Fu Tianyi exclaimed. Even that girl, Ge Tingting, was earnestly nodding and recording!

It was no longer a matter of “poor performance”. Even in his best condition, he was like a blade of grass compared to others.

…And this made him unreconciled.

In a daze, Fu Tianyi slowly clenched his fist.

“I have recorded the data of spatial disturbances, but the sample size isn’t enough,” Lu Xiaohe interjected calmly. “Try it first and adjust it according to Mr. Fu’s subsequent data.”

With a bitter face, Huang Jin added three more protection spirit weapons.

Try it? Fu Tianyi wiped the sweat from his face. What was he supposed to try?

Crack.

In the next second, a burst of hostility erupted around him. It turned into a cold wind and made Fu Tianyi’s face shake. Yin Ren stretched out his right hand and directly cast the spell in front of the gap.

A spell that was infinitely more complicated than the Corpse Cage formed instantly. It was like a huge brand from hell, with black light emanating from its edges, floating in front of the dark gap.

The gap seemed to sense something, and it twisted restlessly, with gray-black mist pouring down from the edges. A terrible cracking sound came from all sides, followed by the harsh sound of something being forcibly torn apart.

Fu Tianyi covered his ears and numbly watched the scene in front of him.

The pitch-black gap grew bigger and bigger, and the wriggling shadows in the darkness beyond were faintly visible. Yin Ren stood with his back to Fu Tianyi. In front of the huge gap, his black hair fluttered in the hostility, like a figure walking out of a painting.

Unfortunately, in the next moment, there was a disgusting sound of something too heavy collapsing, and the gap that had been propped open suddenly closed. It was like an opened mouth that suddenly bit down, instantly shattering Yin Ren’s complex and mysterious spell formation.

What shattered along with it was Yin Ren’s right arm.

Flesh and blood were scattered and turned into dust. Yin Ren’s palm and arm completely exploded, and along with the spell formation, they were swallowed up by the gap, leaving no trace behind.

Fu Tianyi: “?!”

“No,” Yin Ren murmured. “It’s not quite there yet. The array needs to be adjusted… Fu Tianyi, what are you doing? Keep activating the Corpse Cage. Lu Xiaohe needs more ‘space connectivity’ data.”

Fu Tianyi asked, “Wait, are your hands okay?”

Yan Ren didn’t answer.

The next second, he saw bones and muscles rapidly emerge from Yan Ren’s shoulder, forming a brand-new arm in an instant.

Then Yin Ren raised his hand again, and a brand-new array appeared before the gap.

Immediately followed was the familiar scene—the gap was pushed open, the array failed to tear the space, and the spell backfired. The newly grown arm couldn’t hold on for five minutes before it exploded in the air again.

Yin Ren clicked his tongue and grew another arm, as if he felt no pain. Lu Xiaohe was busy with the data in front of the screen and didn’t look over, while Huang Jin seemed used to it and only focused on reinforcing the protection.

Ge Tingting had already secured the Corpse Cage. “Yin Ren is really powerful.”

Her AI voice was serious.

Fu Tianyi was in a daze.

They’re crazy. All of them are crazy.

Yin Ren paid no attention to Fu Tianyi’s progress, repeatedly exploding his arms, but didn’t urge Fu Tianyi again. Even though they all knew that the faster Fu Tianyi mastered the Corpse Cage, the faster Yin Ren could adjust the array.

With the sound of flesh and blood exploding, Fu Tianyi felt like he was on pins and needles every second he was idle.

These people were crazy, and he, who stayed behind, must be crazy too.

He raised his hand again above the Corpse Cage, disregarding his exhausted body, and tried to activate the Corpse Cage again.

……

With the location of the “morgue” provided by Zhong Chengshuo, Minister Zou soon found the correct path.

But with such a big monster behind him, he didn’t dare to confirm the state of Zhong Chengshuo’s corpse.

“This is the deepest part of the underground morgue, divided into three layers. We have to climb the stairs to get to the elevator. This is the third to last layer, so we’ll be out soon.”

Perhaps to save his own life, Minister Zou explained very passionately.

Zhong Chengshuo stayed about two steps behind him. Once he felt stable, he found Minister Zou’s wet pants very distracting and didn’t want to be too close to him.

“What about when we get to the elevator?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

“We can leave the morgue then.” Minister Zou’s forehead broke out in sweat again.

After leaving the morgue, what awaited them was Sunken Society of the Haigu branch—one of the strongest branches of Sunken Society. By then, this monster wouldn’t be able to escape. Each ghost master could drown it with just one spit.

But first, this monster couldn’t get into the elevator.

When they arrived at the elevator, he could immediately sound the alarm and rush into it. By the time he left the underground morgue, this guy would soon be under the control of Sunken Society’s security.

He just had to stabilize this guy first.

“Leave the morgue…” Fortunately, the self-proclaimed fitness instructor didn’t ask any further questions.

“You said your loved one is waiting for you, right?” Minister Zou quickly changed the subject. “She’s probably a very beautiful girl. You must have a good relationship.”

“I don’t know if we have a good relationship.”

Zhong Chengshuo lowered the head that didn’t belong to him, and stepped on the stairs, step by step.

“But I really want to go see them.”

“You will definitely see them.”

Minister Zou smiled apologetically and took two steps forward without making a sound.

“You see, this is the elevator. I’ll go wash my face first…”

Crack.

“I’ll definitely see him.”

Zhong Chengshuo calmly repeated as he watched Minister Zou’s broken neck slide softly to the ground.

---

The author has something to say:

Congratulations to Xiao Zhong for getting a second head (…

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>